


One Way Mirror

by angel1876



Category: To The Moon (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-16 13:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18095612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel1876/pseuds/angel1876
Summary: Neil didn't always wear those anime-villain glasses of his.





	One Way Mirror

It wasn't until she saw him without his glasses that she realized just how long it'd been.

They'd become a part of him, strange as it was to say. Inseparable from the image she saw in her mind's eye, the gleam of light reflecting back at her. She remembered how it started, just after high-school. They'd argued about it for weeks.

"They make you look like a poorly drawn bad guy from a terrible cartoon."

"Obviously you have no taste, Eva. These one of a kind glasses are one of the few things that can reliably show off how bad@%% I am."

"Please. You're as cool as the egg my nephew tried to cook on the hood of the car last summer. What gave you the idea to put one way mirrors into your glasses anyway?"

"I wanted to keep away the reporters that hound us all the time. See? They even have a practical use. I'll make you a pair if you want."

"...no, thanks. The reporters will just think we're both super villains."

It'd come up off and on again for months, something that they messed with each other about as they studied. Then time passed. Getting their PHDs, being hired for the actual job itself. Their partnership, and every life they'd strived to make better. The controversy over their work growing worse, not better, the crowds that gathered outside the building on a regular basis. 

Their hardest case, with River and Johnny. Where banter and disagreement turned into a real, true fight for the first time. 

She remembered that. It was a moment that stuck out sharp among their everyday moments. Neil, getting well and truly angry, on behalf of Johnny's memory. He felt strongly for their patients, and she'd always known that, but she'd never realized how much until that day.

Before they'd known that things were going to work out, he'd fallen back into the habit of joking and banter. It was stiff, given what she'd just done, but it was there, and it was normal. Little indication of what was going on behind those glasses, and if not for the context, she would've thought he'd missed the bus or something.

And maybe that was why she liked working with him as much as she did since then. Not just the arguing, though that was no doubt a part of it, but also knowing that this meant something to him. It wasn't just a job, it was something he wanted to do. Maybe...maybe a part of her latched on to his conviction, because she herself had doubts about their work. Still, throughout all that, she never saw his eyes. 

She saw them now. 

An accident, he'd been goofing off, she'd tried to step in and get his attention, and he'd turned her way before she could stop. His glasses fell to the ground, her hand retracted to her chest, and for the first time in years, she saw his eyes. 

Brilliant green, deep like the shell of a beetle's back. She'd forgotten they were that bright. Widened with surprise, as her own were, and for a moment, their eyes met.

He looked exhausted. Deep bags circling his gaze like bruises, bloodshot and worn, and without that reflective glass between them, they made the indignant press of his mouth seem more stressed than annoyed. 

"Ack! Do you know how much those cost?? If you crack them, I'll-I'll sue!" Neil's turned from her to pick up his glasses, worrying over them with his sleeve, his back turned to her. Within moments, they're back on, his arms folded and his voice raised in a theatrical way. "Phew. You got lucky there. I would've gotten you for like...like...five billion dollars!"

"...Neil...are you...?"

"Come on, Eva. This is the part where you say that I'm the one that's gonna be sued for stealing a copy-writed line."

"...are you okay?"

There's a pause. It's uncomfortable, and feels like it's longer than it actually is, and then he smiles. "Pssh. Don't get all sappy on me. I'm fine. See, this is what happens when they run out of real coffee and give me decaf. Now come on, we got a guy's wish to fulfill."

"..."

He's moving on before she can press the issue, and she's left staring after him, the after-image of his eyes still burned into her vision.

"Come on, Eva! I found the last memento! Let's keep this train rolling!"

She follows him, because he's right. Because they have work to do. Because maybe, maybe it really is the lack of caffeine.

But if she's being honest with herself, she doesn't really believe that. 

And maybe his glasses are one-way for a reason. 


End file.
